Pace of Play – Case Study 4 – Field Compression

"Would it be possible for players to exit the course faster then they enter it?"

An initial guess was that this was not possible because the nature of queuing would deliver only a one way leakage or loss of time per tee tier.

But empirical evidence has proven this wrong. It is possible for groups to exit the course faster than they enter it. In the graph below, a typical 2-tee start with 15 tiers has produced a 2 minute expansion across the tee: first group 4:10, last group 4:12 round times.

But what is also evident in the graph is the behaviour on each side of the slow playing 7:18 group. The tee interval in this instance is 8 minutes. Groups up to 7:10 each exited the course in less than 8 minute intervals thus showing a reduction in round times. Again after the slow playing group at 7:18, the next 4 groups again existed the course in less than 8 minute intervals.

The groups which followed the 7:50 group did not trigger a slow play event but they did add to teh overall expansion rate of the tee.

In the end, an overall expansion of 2 minutes across 15 tiers is very acceptable. The fact that groups which are ‘in position’ and which have adopted the new culture of pace expected of them has delivered a good result for the day.